Beata Bury

The amendment to the Labour Code of 25 June 2015, has introduced a number of changes in the contractual employment relationship. They took aim at a/o limiting the unjustified use of fixed-term employment contracts in respect of their abuse in the labour market. Despite the changes, which came into force on 22 February 2016, the legal status of law in respect of a contract of employment for a specified period of time requires further intervention of the legislator which has been called for long by significant part of the representatives of doctrine. The amendment, in fact, has not so much strengthened the situation of people employed on the basis of the fixed term agreement, it has even weakened it, the change was therefore illusory and seemingly beneficial.
 

Some reflection on the judges’ “task-based” working time

In accordance with the Art. 83 of the Act of 27 July 2001, Law on the Organization of Common Law Courts, the judge’s time of work is specified by its tasks. The employment relationship of judge has some specificity, as regards the scope of staff subordination due to the principle of judicial independence. Typical, traditional understanding of employment subordination is not applied  here, as it would be in a collision with it. The judge is required to perform the commands of superiors only in respect of administrative acts and on the efficiency of court proceedings. In this connection, the question arises as to whether this circumstance is sufficient to defend the argument that the legal status of a judge is so different, that his working time should not be in the framework of working time standards and that this is not “task-based” working time in the meaning of the Art. 140 of the Labor Code.

ASJC: 3308

JEL: K31

Judicial verification of the termination of employment relations in the sphere of public administration on the example of the National Center for Agricultural Support

The construction of the expiry of an employment relationship excludes the use of institutions provided for in the Labor Code for the termination of employment relationships, as it is a lex specialis in relation to the provisions of this Code. This mechanism results in the termination of the employment relationship, in principle, without the labor court being able to check the reasons for it. The labor court, in such conditions, may, however, examine not only whether the expiration of the employment contract by the employer did not violate the law, but also, and perhaps above all, the circumstances of not offering the employee working conditions and pay for a further period and assess it also in context of social coexistence rules. 

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

The amendment to the Labor Code of 24 July 2015, has made significant changes, i.a. the eighth chapter of the Labor Law, including rights related to childbirth and upbringing. It entered into force on 2 January 2016 and includes all types of broadly defined parental leave: maternity leave, additional maternity leave, parental leave, paternity leave and child care leave. The amendment – in a different extent – has covered employees , those remaining in business relations, as well as those performing work on a different basis, covered with social insurance of sickness and maternity (sickness insurance). The Changes were and are the part of wider program of pro- family activities and anti-deteriorating demographic situation in Poland, regarding to the property protection and the economic freedom, enjoying by employers.